The Family Tree
by Cinder46231
Summary: Summary: Sirius was talking about the black tapestry and how he hated his family to Harry and Harry could not stand what he was saying. His reaction leads to a more serious matter about the behind the scenes of the war. I think I went all over the place, it was meant to be much simpler. Grey!Harry. Lily Potter is not related to Petunia. Dumledore!bashing.


The Family Tree

Summary: Sirius was talking about the black tapestry and how he hated his family to Harry and Harry could not stand what he was saying. His reaction leads to a more serious matter about the behind the scenes of the war. I think I went all over the place, it was meant to be much simpler. Grey!Harry. Lily Potter is not related to Petunia. Dumledore!bashing. I don't hate Sirius but he was too oblivious in the story for me to leave him alone. It is implied that Harry was more hated at the Dursley household than what is in the books.

It was summer before Harry's 5th year and he and his godfather were standing in front of the Black family tapestry as Sirius talked about all the numerous aunts, uncles, and the millions of cousins that seemed to appear on the mural like parchment. It was interesting at the beginning when Harry saw his own name on the tapestry and that he actually had more relatives than what Dumbledore told him.

'_That old goat has been lying to me for so long. Have to find some way to get back at him.'_

It wasn't until Sirius started ranting about how much he hated his family for being pureblood supremist and how they were all either arrogant arseholes or crazy (Read: Mentally Unstable. Harry did not want to disrespect all his possibly still alive relatives that might take him away from the Dursley's if he asked carefully.) that Harry had opinions to voice.

Harry didn't want to comment about what Sirius was saying because he felt that everyone was title to their own opinions but then his godfather said the one sentence that crossed the line.

"Sometimes I wish that I didn't have family, at least then I don't have to deal with a bunch of nut cases for relatives." As Sirius was saying this, he did not notice that Harry was glaring at him. If looks could kill, he would have burned to ashes by now. It was only when he turned to look at his godson, he realizes something was wrong, but being the grownup child that he was, he had yet to figure out what the problem was.

"Harry? What's wrong? Why are you glaring at me like that?"

'_Sirius, how can you be completely oblivious to what you just said?'_ Harry thought in his mind, not letting up on the glare he has directed at his godfather.

"This tapestry identifies everyone that is related to you either by blood, by adoption, or by marriage correct?"

"Yes. Every Black, their spouses, and their children are on this."

"Sirius, do you know how to read?" Harry asked coldly. He didn't want to outright say the many problems wrong with Sirius's sentence but could not just let the matter go.

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"Then can you read who Dorea Black married?" Harry hinted, hoping that was all he had to give for Sirius to figure it out.

"Charlus Potter." Sirius answered, still not getting where this was going.

"Who is he related to?"

"Henry Potter."

"Who is his son?"

"Fleamont Potter. Harry, this is getting us nowhere. What are you trying to say?"

"This tapestry marks who is part of your family tree, meaning it tells you who every one of your family members are. Are you telling me that you want every single one of your family to be dead?"

"Yes, I wished that I never had such a messed-up family, now why are you asking this?"

"Can you continue reading all the names that are connected to Fleamont Potter?"

Sirius turned to read the names that continued after his cousin by marriage

"Who is Fleamont Potter's son?"

"James, your father."

"Yes. As you can see, I am also on this family tree of yours. Meaning that if you wanted your entire family to be dead you would also be wishing that my father, your best friend, and me, your godson, dead. It truly shows how much you care Sirius." Harry reveals to the quickly paling Sirius as his godfather realizes what he had carelessly said had actually meant more than he thought.

"Harry…I didn't mean that. It was more that I wished that the crazy or darker members of my family weren't alive. I didn't mean you or your father. More like Bellatrix." Sirius tried to explain himself but it appears that Harry was not really forgiving him yet.

'_Sirius doesn't even realize that that was not all that was wrong.'_

"So, what you are trying to tell me is that you would wish death on your own blood relative, someone that is your true family, just because they have different goals and ideals. Something that I don't have the privilege of doing since I have no immediate relatives that want to keep me or don't want to kill me and since you seem keen on not wanting any of your family around, I can only assume that you would not want to have me either." Harry's voice was as cold as ice by the end.

"But your aunt and cousin…" Sirius was speechless. He didn't know how to explain himself when he realized that he was especially rubbing in the fact that he had family to hate into the face of his orphan godson.

"I bet no one knows this yet but I found out that the family that I lived with for most of my life isn't even related to me since my mother was adopted into the Evans family when she was a child. The Dursleys were never blood."

Sirius did not know what to say. He was just showed his godson that he was an ungrateful prat since he was taking for granted something that Harry wanted but could not have.

"I know that having crazy relatives is not the best thing to have but being ungrateful for something that others can only dream of is not okay. There are many things that you don't know about this world Sirius because you had very little time between Hogwarts and Azkaban but being oblivious to the games being played in this war is not okay and could very well get you killed. So, learn to appreciate what you have before it can be taken away from you. I know for sure at least seven relatives of yours which are not crazy or dark so you better get it together and get to know them before the players in this war decide to get rid of them when they lose their worth." Harry softened his glare. He didn't appreciate what Sirius thought of family but he did love his godfather so he would let him off easy this one time.

"Seven? When did I gain so many sane family members? I thought only the Tonks were left?" Sirius was confused. As far as he knew only Andromeda, Ted, and Nymphadora were sane in what was left of his relatives. Who else could there be?

'_Shit, I forgot about those three. Can't believe that I hoped that every Black died when they were also in that group.'_

"You forgot about Lucius, Narcissa and Draco Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange." Harry clarified. Most would not think that Harry was friendly with the Malfoy Scion but that was just so that Dumbledore would not be suspicious of his actions.

"Why them, they're Death Eaters. We should not associate with them." Sirius said.

"That is the exact point I was trying to make about you being oblivious. You don't know who they really are behind the mask that they put up for the public even though they are your family. Those four that you believe are Death Eaters are spies like Snape except that they are spies for me. You believe that they are fighting for what Dumbledore says is Voldemort's goal, to rid the Wizarding World of muggleborn. What you don't know is that those are not his goals. I would know since I've spoken to him about this." Harry explained

"Harry!" Sirius exclaimed, not believing that his godson would defend his parent's killers.

"What you don't understand is that Lucius, Narcissa, and Draco are spying on Dumbledore for me and Voldemort. Lucius for when Dumbledore is at the Ministry, Draco for when he is at school, and Narcissa for when he is at Diagon Alley. You believe that Dumbledore is not evil, but what you don't know is that he is the one behind that reason why your last best friend cannot live free, why abused witches and wizards don't get help, why I don't have parents, and why you ended up in Azkaban. That man is the true evil mastermind. All just so that he could stay the all-powerful Light Lord."

"That can't be true" Sirius denied, not wanting to believe what he was hearing.

"If you don't want to hear it from me than go ask any of your family, you can even ask your mother's painting. They will all tell you the same thing. I can promise you at least one thing in this. If you want help with anything, come ask me because no matter what I want to help the family that I do have." Harry said with his hand on Sirius's shoulder before leaving the man to his own thoughts. Harry spoke the truth and now it was time for Sirius to decide if he wants to believe in the truth or hide from reality until his death.

Meanwhile, Sirius was sitting in the drawing room, thinking over everything that happened in the last 20 minutes. He didn't know what to think. He was literally just told that everything he believed in was a lie and that the people he thought he could trust were not who they seemed to be. He sat there for a good 10 minutes, wonder if he should just drink his troubles away, but then decided that he should find the truth for himself. First thing though is to not make Dumbledore suspicious since if what Harry said was true then that old goat would probably lie to him and he might just fall for it.

Thinking his mother's portrait is a good place to start, since he was stuck in this house anyways, he made his way down the hall to the curtains that everyone always tries to keep close and pulls them open. For once his mother was not screeching the moment they opened, instead his mother was just staring at him with an emotion he could not decipher.

"Hello mother." Sirius greeted, feeling weird since it has been a long time since he has talked to her.

"Hello Sirius." His mother returned making him surprised that she wasn't throwing insults at him.

"I was told that if I talked to you, I might be able to get some answers about what is really going on with everything." Sirius explained. He was for some reason scared of his mother and he didn't even know why.

"I know. I heard everything that Lord Potter said to you in the other room. You didn't think that I would trap myself here without some way to keep up with what was going on, did you? Don't think so little of your mother." Walburga said with a small hint of a smile on her face, shocking Sirius with what was happening.

"So, you know what I am going to ask?" Sirius said before telling his mom to wait a moment so that he could go grab a chair.

"Yes, but why don't you ask the ones you really want to know so that if we get caught, you at least have the most important questions answered." She offered.

The mother and son duo spent well over three hours talking about many things from what Voldemort's real goals were,

"He wanted to cut off contact from the muggle world by monitoring for muggleborns and seeing if their parents would accept them. If they weren't then the parents would be Obliviated and the child/children would be raised in the Wizarding World after being adopted. He didn't want any more abused children to be brought into Hogwarts, just to be sent back to suffer every summer. I went to school with Tom, and I can tell you one thing and that was no matter how hard he tried to hide it, he did not like being sent back to the Orphanage in the middle of WWII. He most likely wanted to stop others from being hurt at the hands of muggles."

To who killed the Potters if Voldemort did not,

"That was also Dumbledore. He gave a potion to Pettigrew, who was a spy in our ranks for the old goat, who slipped it to Tom. The potion causes the drinker to follow the orders of the brewer. There were no ways to avoid the command until Severus created an antidote when more and more of our forces were force under Dumbledore's control. What Tom did that night was not him but rather the Headmaster."

To whether or not his mother hated him,

"I am sitting here talking with you, aren't I? It was never my intention for you to believe that I hated you nor did I want to disown you. No mother in the world could ever look their child in the eye and say they did not love them. Mother and child are known to share a special connection that can never be experienced by anyone else. I loved you with my being and never doubt it."

"I love you too mom." Sirius said, tears in his eyes that were threatening to fall.

"It wasn't only me that loved you. Your family did. We all loved you. I let you leave because I knew that if I didn't do so then Dumbledore would come after you. You are Lord Black no matter what and as the Head of The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black you are to protect everyone that you can that is still alive on that family tree. Back then, that included you cousin James and his family. Your father and I knew we were not fair to you in your early years but we wanted to prepare you to be able to fight against the political stage as one of the strongest influencers of Wizarding Britain." His mother sounded proud and Sirius could not help but smile.

"But how do I protect everyone if I am to be given the Kiss on site. I don't even know where to start reclaiming all that has been lost." Sirius, for the first time in his life, felt like he was unworthy of being his mother's son because of the sorry state he was in.

"I know what the first step is. If you ask Harry, he can clear you name and from there you can take up the mantle that you were always meant to take." She said.

"Harry can help?" Sirius was surprised. _'Why is mother asking me to look for help from my godson?'_

"Of course. Of all the connections the Black family has with the other noble houses, the Potter house is seen as by far the lightest and the Head of House at the moment is your godson so it makes it easy for him to get you a trail. What is even better is that the Potter family is a lot older than they seem. It is because the names keep changing that not many remember this but the Potter line descended from the Peverell line. This leads to him being able to hold more than just the 23 seats that he holds right now as Lord Potter and Proxy to the Black House. He also holds the Peverell seats as Lord Peverell and by extension, the Slytherin seats as their Proxy. That boy holds the majority vote my himself, not including the connections he has to the other Head of Houses. With the political power he holds, he could get you charged no guilty in a 20-minute trial." Walburga couldn't help but laugh at the look on her son's face.

"Harry is crazy powerful." Sirius whispered like as if he was trying to convince himself.

"Yes, now if what I see is right, it is very late and you need your rest. You can ask Harry to help you tomorrow."

"Yes mother." Sirius said as he went to put the chair away. He didn't bother with the curtain because he didn't want to cover his mother, so he just made his way to the stair case.

"Hey son?" His mom called out before he made his way up.

"Yes mom?" Sirius turned to look at her frame.

"Goodnight Sirius, lets talk some more next time. I love you." She said with a smile on her face and Sirius couldn't help but smile too.

"Let's catch up next time. I love you too mother, goodnight." Sirius said before he made his way upstairs.

**Don't know how to proceed so it will stop here until I know where to proceed with this story.**

**Comment possible ideas if you have any.**


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